Overview of content related to 'kingston university'http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/taxonomy/term/133/all?article-type=&term=&organisation=&project=&author=&issue=
RSS feed with Ariadne content related to specified tagenBook Review: Introducing RDAhttp://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue66/clifford-rvw
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<p><a href="/issue66/clifford-rvw#author1">Katrina Clifford</a> reviews a work covering the long-heralded change in the cataloguing rule set - RDA (Resource Description and Access).</p>
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<!-- v3: author final edits implemented 2011-02-22 REW --><!-- v3: author final edits implemented 2011-02-22 REW --><p>The world of information description and retrieval is one of constant change and RDA (Resource Description and Access) is often touted as being one of the most radical changes on the horizon. Early discussions were often couched very much in terms of the principles behind the move from AACR2 (Anglo American Cataloguing Rules) and the principles of a FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records)-based system. We gradually move closer to the Library of Congress' decision on whether to adopt RDA or not, raising questions of what adoption will mean in terms not just of day-to-day cataloguing but the wider retrieval world. Therefore, it is not just cataloguers who may feel they need to gain an understanding of exactly what RDA is and what moving to it will involve. The title of Chris Oliver's book, <em>Introducing RDA: A Guide to the Basics</em>, will, as a result, catch the eye of people from many spheres of information work.</p>
<h2 id="Content_of_the_Book">Content of the Book</h2>
<p>Although this book is just over 100 pages long, I would say it is not necessary to start at the beginning and work your way through the book to get the most out of it. If you're looking for something that places RDA squarely within the historical context of information retrieval and the rationale behind its development then the first two chapters give a comprehensive overview in relatively few pages. Chapter 1, 'What is RDA?' introduces the idea of RDA being designed as a result of an increasingly varied range of resources in need of description, especially those that are digital in nature. Additionally there is the need to search multiple datasets at once, including those beyond libraries, in allied institutions such as museums and archives. Chapter 2, 'RDA and the international context', as implied by the title explores the relationship of RDA to international documentation standards such as ISBD (International Standard Bibliographic Description) and how it copes in terms of handling language issues of catalogue records. It is just a brief overview however, all the ideas are discussed in one or two paragraphs each. Together, these two initial chapters would easily fill in the background for an uninitiated professional, such as a library school student and indeed they show that RDA is built upon many of the key concepts touched upon in library school courses, such as Cutter's<em> Rules for a dictionary catalog</em>.</p>
<p>Chapter 3 furthers this introduction by describing FRBR and FRAD (Functional Requirements for Authority Data) and how they relate to RDA. In all the more recent discussions surrounding practical aspects of the uptake of RDA, the theoretical principles underlying it are often forgotten and revisiting them can be an interesting exercise. After an overview of how FRBR and FRAD are constructed, it moves on to why they are important. One figure lays out a MARC record and labels the fields with the appropriate FRBR entities which is helpful in understanding them in context. The remainder of the chapter shows how the RDA terms have been incorporated into the layout of the sections of RDA and the wording of the rules themselves. The chapter shows why RDA is laid out in a very different way to AACR2, grouping rules by the attribute described rather than by item format. This chapter is perhaps the most difficult to work through, but I feel this is due to the nature of the content, rather than any failing on the part of the author.</p>
<p>Chapter 4 is entitled 'Continuity with AACR2' and while this may indicate it will describe how catalogues may appear different, the start of the chapter focuses more on continuity in terms of governance and principles rather than on the nuts and bolts of the records themselves. It does move to describing how AACR2 has been reworked into RDA, rather than RDA being written from scratch and illustrates this with a couple of rules and wordings from both products to compare the differences and similarities. It then moves back to what is essentially an historical account of the 'deconstruction' of AACR2, which is interesting in itself; but it would have been better placed near the start of the chapter to distinguish better between the historical description and the examples from RDA which follow.</p>
<p></p><p><a href="http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue66/clifford-rvw" target="_blank">read more</a></p>issue66reviewkatrina cliffordkingston universitylibrary of congressaacr2archivesauthority databibliographic datacataloguingdatadata setfradfrbrinformation retrievalisbdmarcmarc21metadataresource description and accesssearch technologystandardsvideowikiSun, 30 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000editor1614 at http://www.ariadne.ac.ukGet Tooled Up: Xerxes at Royal Holloway, University of Londonhttp://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue62/grigson-et-al
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<p><a href="/issue62/grigson-et-al#author1">Anna Grigson</a>, <a href="/issue62/grigson-et-al#author2">Peter Kiely</a>, <a href="/issue62/grigson-et-al#author3">Graham Seaman</a> and <a href="/issue62/grigson-et-al#author4">Tim Wales</a> describe the implementation of an open source front end to the MetaLib federated search tool.</p>
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<!-- v4. completion of author details: institution - 2010-02-22-10-30- rew --><!-- v4. completion of author details: institution - 2010-02-22-10-30- rew --><p>Rarely is software a purely technical issue, though it may be marketed as 'technology'. Software is embedded in work, and work patterns become moulded around it. Thus the use of a particular package can give rise to an inertia from which it can be hard to break free.</p>
<p>Moreover, when this natural inertia is combined with data formats that are opaque or unique to a particular system, the organisation can become locked in to that system, a potential victim of the pricing policies or sluggish adaptability of the software provider. The speed of change in the information world in recent years, combined with the actual or expected crunch in library funding, has made this a particular issue for library management system (LMS) users. While there is general agreement on the direction to take - more 'like Google' - LMS suppliers' moves in this direction can prove both slow and expensive for the user.</p>
<p>Open source software has often been suggested as an alternative, but the nature of lock-in means that the jump from proprietary to open system can be all or nothing; in effect too big (and complex) a risk to take. No major UK university libraries have yet moved to Koha, Evergreen, or indeed any open source LMS [<a href="#1">1</a>].</p>
<p>The alternative, which brings its own risks, is to take advantage of the pressures on LMS suppliers to make their own systems more open, and to use open source systems 'around the edges' [<a href="#2">2</a>]. This has the particular benefit of creating an overall system which follows the well-established design practice of creating a clean separation of 'view' (typically the Web interface) from 'model' (here the LMS-managed databases) and 'controller' (the LMS core code). The 'view' is key to the user experience of the system, and this separation gives the ability to make rapid changes or to integrate Web 2.0 features quickly and easily, independently of the system back-end. The disadvantage of this approach is that it is relatively fragile, being dependent on the willingness of the LMS supplier to provide a detailed and stable application programming interface (API).</p>
<p>There are several current examples of this alternative approach. Some, like the Vufind OPAC, allow the use of plug-ins which adapt the software to a range of different LMSs. Others, like Xerxes, are specialised front-ends to a single system (MetaLib from ExLibris [<a href="#3">3</a>]). This has an impact on evaluating the software: in particular, the pool of active developers is likely to be smaller in the latter case.</p>
<h2 id="Royal_Holloway_Library_Services">Royal Holloway Library Services</h2>
<p>Within this general context, Royal Holloway Library Services were faced with a specific problem. The annual National Student Survey had given ratings to the Library well below those expected, with many criticisms centred on the difficulty in using the Library's MetaLib federated search system.</p>
<p>MetaLib is a key access point to the Library's e-resources, incorporating both A-Z lists of major online databases available to library users, and a federated search tool. Feedback showed that many users found the interface less than satisfactory, with one user commenting that:</p>
<blockquote><p><em>'MetaLib is possibly the worst and most confusing library interface I have ever come across'</em></p></blockquote>
<p>The Library Management Team decided to remedy this as a matter of urgency and set a deadline of the start of the 2009 Autumn term. There was no funding available to acquire an alternative discovery system so the challenge was to identify a low-cost, quick-win solution for the existing one. With this work in mind, the incoming Associate Director (E-Strategy) had already recruited two new colleagues over the Summer vacation: a systems officer with Web development experience, the other an experienced e-resources manager.</p>
<p>The first possible route to the improvement of MetaLib was modification of the existing MetaLib Web interface. This was technically possible but presented several major difficulties: the underlying ExLibris designs were based on the old HTML 4.0 and pre-dated current stylesheet-based design practice; the methods to adapt the designs were opaque and poorly documented, based on numbered variables with semantics that changed depending on context; and perhaps most importantly, the changes were to be made over the summer months, giving no time for user feedback on the details of the changes to be made.</p>
<p>The second possibility was the use of Xerxes [<a href="#4">4</a>]. Xerxes offered the advantage of an interface design which had been user-tested on a range of (US) campuses, partially solving the user feedback issue. It was not, however, entirely cost-free, as ExLibris charges an annual maintenance fee for the MetaLib X-server API on which Xerxes depends.</p>
<p></p><p><a href="http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue62/grigson-et-al" target="_blank">read more</a></p>issue62feature articleanna grigsongraham seamanpeter kielytim walesgooglejiscjisc collectionskingston universitymicrosoftroyal hollowaysconuluniversity of londongnuapiauthenticationdatadatabaseebookejournalfree softwaregplhtmlinteroperabilitylibrary management systemslicencelinuxmysqlopacopen sourcephpportalrefworksrepositoriesresearchsearch technologysfxsoftwaresolarisstandardsstylesheetvufindweb 2.0web developmentweb serviceswikixmlxsltSat, 30 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000editor1525 at http://www.ariadne.ac.ukThe Historic Hospitals Admission Records Projecthttp://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue60/hawkins-tanner
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<p><a href="/issue60/hawkins-tanner#author1">Sue Hawkins</a> and <a href="/issue60/hawkins-tanner#author2">Andrea Tanner</a> describe a ground-breaking Web site using children's hospital admission registers.</p>
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<p>The Historic Hospitals Admission Records Project (HHARP) is a digitisation and indexing project that covers the Victorian and Edwardian admission registers for the London children's hospitals Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), the Evelina Children's Hospital in Southwark and the Alexandra Hip Hospital in Bloomsbury, together with Yorkhill Children's Hospital in Glasgow.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue60/hawkins-tanner" target="_blank">read more</a></p>issue60feature articleandrea tannersue hawkinsinstitute of historical researchkingston universitymicrosoftnhswellcome trusthharpscarletaccessibilityarchivesdatadata setdatabasedigitisationmetadataresearchsearch technologystandardisationstandardstaggingWed, 29 Jul 2009 23:00:00 +0000editor1490 at http://www.ariadne.ac.ukNews and Eventshttp://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue58/newsline
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<p>Ariadne presents a brief summary of news and events.</p>
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<h2 id="JISC_Digital_Media_formerly_TASI_Training_Schedule">JISC Digital Media (formerly TASI) Training Schedule</h2>
<p>Four brand new courses are on offer for the 2009 season dealing with:</p>
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<li>Finding free images online</li>
<li>Editing and managing images using Photoshop Lightroom 2</li>
<li>Audio Production (recording lectures, seminars, interviews and podcasts)</li>
<li>Digitising analogue video recordings.</li>
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<p>Courses are already filling up fast and several courses now have multiple dates to accommodate demand.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue58/newsline" target="_blank">read more</a></p>issue58news and eventsrichard walleramazonarlassociation of research librariescilipcnijiscjisc digital mediakingston universityloughborough universitymlanational library of the netherlandsoclcserials solutionsstanford universitytasithe national archivesuniversity of chicagouniversity of washingtonvictoria universityimpact projectaccessibilityadobeaggregationarchivescopyrightcurationdatadatabasedigital curationdigital librarydigital mediadigital repositoriesdigitisationdisseminatione-learninge-researchebookframeworkhigher educationinformation retrievalinfrastructureknowledge managementlicencemetadatamobilemultimedianational libraryocropen accessoptical character recognitionphotoshoppodcastpreservationrepositoriesresearchresource discoveryresource managementrsssemantic webvideoFri, 30 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000editor1459 at http://www.ariadne.ac.ukWeb Watch: Size of Institutional Top Level Pageshttp://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue28/web-watch
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<p>Web Watch: <a href="/issue28/web-watch#author1">Brian Kelly</a> looks at the size of institutional top level pages.</p>
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<p>Is your University home page big, bold and brassy? Is it colourful and interactive, making use of new technologies in order to stand out from the crowd? Or is it mean and lean, with a simple design providing rapid download times and universal access?</p>
<p>This survey of the size of the entry points for UK University and College entry points seeks an answer to these questions.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue28/web-watch" target="_blank">read more</a></p>issue28tooled upbrian kellycanterbury christ church universitycentral school of speech and dramade montfort universityedinburgh college of artedinburgh napier universityglasgow caledonian universityglasgow school of artharper adams university collegeheriot-watt universityimperial college londonjisckings college londonkingston universityleeds metropolitan universityliverpool john moores universitylondon business schoollondon school of economicsnottingham trent universityopen universityrobert gordon universityrose bruford collegeroyal academy of musicroyal college of artroyal college of musicroyal conservatoire of scotlandroyal hollowayroyal northern college of musicroyal veterinary collegeschool of oriental and african studiessheffield hallam universitysouth bank universitysurrey institute of art & designukolnuniversity college londonuniversity of bathuniversity of cambridgeuniversity of glamorganuniversity of hulluniversity of oxforduniversity of surreyuniversity of walesuniversity of west londonarchivescopyrightcssdatadhtmlflashgifhigher educationhtmlinternet explorerjavascriptmultimediastylesheetswfurlweb serviceswindowsThu, 21 Jun 2001 23:00:00 +0000editor811 at http://www.ariadne.ac.ukWeb Watch: What's Related to My Web Site?http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue27/web-watch
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<p>What's Related To My Web Site? <a href="/issue27/web-watch#author1">Brian Kelly</a> looks at Netscape's 'What's Related?' facility and reports on the service's findings for institutional Web servers.</p>
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<h2 id="Netscape-s_What-s_Related_Service">Netscape's What's Related Service</h2>
<p>One possibly underused facility in the Netscape browser is its What's Related feature. When viewing a Web page, clicking on the What's Related button in the Netscape toolbar (shown in Figure 1) will display related information about the page being viewing.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue27/web-watch" target="_blank">read more</a></p>issue27tooled upbrian kellycanterbury christ church universitycentral school of speech and dramade montfort universityedinburgh college of artglasgow caledonian universityglasgow school of artgoogleharper adams university collegeharvard universityimperial college londonkings college londonkingston universityleeds metropolitan universityliverpool john moores universitylondon business schoollondon school of economicsmanchester metropolitan universitynottingham trent universityopen universityrobert gordon universityrose bruford collegeroyal academy of musicroyal college of artroyal college of musicroyal conservatoire of scotlandroyal hollowayroyal northern college of musicroyal veterinary collegeschool of oriental and african studiessheffield hallam universitysouth bank universitysurrey institute of art & designukolnuniversity college londonuniversity of bathuniversity of cambridgeuniversity of edinburghuniversity of liverpooluniversity of manchesteruniversity of oxforduniversity of surreyuniversity of walesuniversity of west londonyale universityinternet archivearchivesbrowserdatagoogle searchhigher educationportalrdfsearch technologysoftwareurlweb browserFri, 23 Mar 2001 00:00:00 +0000editor784 at http://www.ariadne.ac.ukInfopoleconhttp://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue6/lindsay
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<p><a href="/issue6/lindsay#author1">John Lindsay</a> comments on the evolution of the UK network infrastructure, and the problems arguably generated along the way.</p>
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<p>Jeremy Bentham coined the term 'panopticon' in his proposal for a circular prison, whose cells were exposed to a central well in which the warders were located, allowing the prisoners to see all other prisoners and to be observed at all times without ever knowing when they were being watched. Bentham also promoted the idea of political economy as the greatest good for the greatest number. Drawing on his terminology as the basis for this article, I therefore propose the new term 'infopolecon' to describe the political economy of information.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue6/lindsay" target="_blank">read more</a></p>issue6feature articlejohn lindsaybritish libraryedinajisckingston universitymicrosoftncsasconulucisaukernaacornelibnissbrowsercataloguingcd-romcopyrightdatadata setdatabasedigital librarydigitisationhigher educationhtmlinfrastructurelicencemultimediapasswordsraeresearchsearch technologystandardisationurlz39.50Tue, 19 Nov 1996 00:00:00 +0000editor192 at http://www.ariadne.ac.uk